Samenvatting ethische
Ethics of enhancement and doping
What is ethics?
Ethics: what we ought to do?
Investigating how should we act and be in the world
Two kinds of questions
What is the good life? How should I live?
o Well-being, human flourishing
How should I behave towards others?
o Provide ethical (moral) reasons for your actions ethical
justification
Ethical disagreement- fact of reasonable pluralism
Personal vs public ethics
Personal ethics
Conceptions of a good life
Religious or moral
e.g. Meaning and purpose of life, family structure, marriage/
relationship, work/ leisure, friendship, consumption, etc
public ethics
Which ethical principles should guide social institutions?
Which actions/ practices should the state intervene in or reglulate?
o Should human enhancement technologies and substances be
allowed?
o Should doping be permitted/ banned in sports?
Which ethical principles support it or conflict with it?
Diversity of views and persons
Ethics of enhancement and doping
Introduction
Elite competitive sports is a contest between persons with unequal genetic
endowments and natural advantages
Some are born exceptionally gifted for sports
Others train very hard
Still others respond more effectively to training (endurance)
Mäntyranta, extraordinary Finnish cross-country skier, 1960s
carried a rare genetic mutation → his bone marrow overproduced red
blood cells (65% more than average)
30km race – won by 40 sec. margin
Ethical question: what do we value and reward in sports?
What is merit?
A)Innate abilities at birth
Talent, genes
1
, Common perception: success based on talent and ability is justified
Epigenetics: genes switch on/ off depending on the environment
B)Effort, hard work
Amount of time
Intensity of work/ hour, productivity, efficiency
Just society- IQ and educational resources
Policy 1: spend more on those who have less IQ, to compensate for
disadvantage through no fault of their own
Policy 2: spend more on those who have more IQ, for the most
efficient use of resources
Equality of opportunity
What should count as an unfair disadvantage?
1.Luck egalitarianism (Dworkin)
Policies should compensate people for disadvantageous
circumstances
Natural inequalities- matter of luck, circumstance beyond control
o Should be compensated: treatment, resources
Human enhancement: natural inequalities brought under control
2.Fair equality of opportunity (rawls)
Combi talent en effort
Equalizing social Klassen
“those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the
same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of
success regardless of their initial place in the social system.”
Therapy vs enhancement
Muscles
Researches have developed a synthetic gene, which injected into the
muscle cells prevents and even reverses natural muscle
deterioration: repairs injured muscles + strengthens healthy ones
Welcome gene therapy in old age to reverse muscle loss
But what if it was used to increase athletic performance
Height
Hormone deficiency makes some children shorter than average
Human growth hormone approved for therapeutic use
Parent of healthy but short children ask for treatment
Memory, concentration
Enhancing drugs developed to cure Alzheimer, ADHS
Normal functioning
Below threshold restore a function treatment: therapy
At/ above threshold augment desirable trait enhancement
What is normal?
Biomedical: human species functioning
o Decreasing sight myopic eye operation
Value based: normal= socially, culturally acceptable
o Disability movement reclaiming blind culture
2
, What is enhancement
Definition: biomedical interventions to improve human capacities and
performances beyond the traditional scope of therapeutic medicine
Types of enhancement
Cognitive enhancement -smart drugs to increase IG: memory drugs
(soldiers)
Physical enhancement- doping in sports
Moral enhancement- condition emotions, such as empathy
Love enhancement- increase lust, secure attachment
Permissive views
Willen meer enhancement (argumenten voor), moral obligation (we
moeten het doen)
1.Welfarist ethics
Ethically good action/ decision: maximize well-being
Enhancement and therapeutic treatment are both ethically
acceptable means to improve human well being
o Evaluate: effort on net welfare
2.Continuity with familiar means of improving human capacities
Intelligence and strength can be increased by nutrition, education,
training- environmental engineering
Genetic engineering has the same goals and is morally on a par
3.Enhancement is moral obligation (saluescu)
Not only permissible, but we have to do it
Necessary for survival of human species
o Our moral psychology developed in/for a very different social
environment: small community, basic technology
o Change moral disposition to protect from terrorism, greed,
environmental destruction that put at risk its existence:
globalized-interconnected world, complex technologies.
o In-vitro fertilization (IVF): parents should select the embryo
with the most well-being potential → beneficence to future
generations (?)
Problem of restricting the life-options of childres: sports gene that is
suitable for running fast, but not for weightlifting
Solution: only allow enhancement in ‘all purpose capacities’ (not
specific traits)
Restrictive views
1.Egalitarianism
Promote more equality- restrict inequality
Metric: wealth/ resources/ opportunities/ capabilities
E1 enhancement increases inequality
Rijken meer acces aan de technologies (betalen voor betere
medicijnen, enhancement)
E2 drain resources from the poor- life saving medicine
Threaten the well being of the poor majority (selgelid)
E3 equality of opportunity
3
Ethics of enhancement and doping
What is ethics?
Ethics: what we ought to do?
Investigating how should we act and be in the world
Two kinds of questions
What is the good life? How should I live?
o Well-being, human flourishing
How should I behave towards others?
o Provide ethical (moral) reasons for your actions ethical
justification
Ethical disagreement- fact of reasonable pluralism
Personal vs public ethics
Personal ethics
Conceptions of a good life
Religious or moral
e.g. Meaning and purpose of life, family structure, marriage/
relationship, work/ leisure, friendship, consumption, etc
public ethics
Which ethical principles should guide social institutions?
Which actions/ practices should the state intervene in or reglulate?
o Should human enhancement technologies and substances be
allowed?
o Should doping be permitted/ banned in sports?
Which ethical principles support it or conflict with it?
Diversity of views and persons
Ethics of enhancement and doping
Introduction
Elite competitive sports is a contest between persons with unequal genetic
endowments and natural advantages
Some are born exceptionally gifted for sports
Others train very hard
Still others respond more effectively to training (endurance)
Mäntyranta, extraordinary Finnish cross-country skier, 1960s
carried a rare genetic mutation → his bone marrow overproduced red
blood cells (65% more than average)
30km race – won by 40 sec. margin
Ethical question: what do we value and reward in sports?
What is merit?
A)Innate abilities at birth
Talent, genes
1
, Common perception: success based on talent and ability is justified
Epigenetics: genes switch on/ off depending on the environment
B)Effort, hard work
Amount of time
Intensity of work/ hour, productivity, efficiency
Just society- IQ and educational resources
Policy 1: spend more on those who have less IQ, to compensate for
disadvantage through no fault of their own
Policy 2: spend more on those who have more IQ, for the most
efficient use of resources
Equality of opportunity
What should count as an unfair disadvantage?
1.Luck egalitarianism (Dworkin)
Policies should compensate people for disadvantageous
circumstances
Natural inequalities- matter of luck, circumstance beyond control
o Should be compensated: treatment, resources
Human enhancement: natural inequalities brought under control
2.Fair equality of opportunity (rawls)
Combi talent en effort
Equalizing social Klassen
“those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the
same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of
success regardless of their initial place in the social system.”
Therapy vs enhancement
Muscles
Researches have developed a synthetic gene, which injected into the
muscle cells prevents and even reverses natural muscle
deterioration: repairs injured muscles + strengthens healthy ones
Welcome gene therapy in old age to reverse muscle loss
But what if it was used to increase athletic performance
Height
Hormone deficiency makes some children shorter than average
Human growth hormone approved for therapeutic use
Parent of healthy but short children ask for treatment
Memory, concentration
Enhancing drugs developed to cure Alzheimer, ADHS
Normal functioning
Below threshold restore a function treatment: therapy
At/ above threshold augment desirable trait enhancement
What is normal?
Biomedical: human species functioning
o Decreasing sight myopic eye operation
Value based: normal= socially, culturally acceptable
o Disability movement reclaiming blind culture
2
, What is enhancement
Definition: biomedical interventions to improve human capacities and
performances beyond the traditional scope of therapeutic medicine
Types of enhancement
Cognitive enhancement -smart drugs to increase IG: memory drugs
(soldiers)
Physical enhancement- doping in sports
Moral enhancement- condition emotions, such as empathy
Love enhancement- increase lust, secure attachment
Permissive views
Willen meer enhancement (argumenten voor), moral obligation (we
moeten het doen)
1.Welfarist ethics
Ethically good action/ decision: maximize well-being
Enhancement and therapeutic treatment are both ethically
acceptable means to improve human well being
o Evaluate: effort on net welfare
2.Continuity with familiar means of improving human capacities
Intelligence and strength can be increased by nutrition, education,
training- environmental engineering
Genetic engineering has the same goals and is morally on a par
3.Enhancement is moral obligation (saluescu)
Not only permissible, but we have to do it
Necessary for survival of human species
o Our moral psychology developed in/for a very different social
environment: small community, basic technology
o Change moral disposition to protect from terrorism, greed,
environmental destruction that put at risk its existence:
globalized-interconnected world, complex technologies.
o In-vitro fertilization (IVF): parents should select the embryo
with the most well-being potential → beneficence to future
generations (?)
Problem of restricting the life-options of childres: sports gene that is
suitable for running fast, but not for weightlifting
Solution: only allow enhancement in ‘all purpose capacities’ (not
specific traits)
Restrictive views
1.Egalitarianism
Promote more equality- restrict inequality
Metric: wealth/ resources/ opportunities/ capabilities
E1 enhancement increases inequality
Rijken meer acces aan de technologies (betalen voor betere
medicijnen, enhancement)
E2 drain resources from the poor- life saving medicine
Threaten the well being of the poor majority (selgelid)
E3 equality of opportunity
3
